What's the story?

The first Wii U exclusive from Platinum Games, but the studio that made Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has managed to stick to what it knows best. Wonderful 101 is colourful and cartoony and looks at home on a Nintendo console, but is still full of all the intense action that really skilled players love.

Gameplay

When aliens called "Geathjerk" invade a futuristic earth, one saviour is not enough. Instead, the player controls up to 100 colourful heroes, using the GamePad stylus or analog stick to draw them into formations like a fist or a sword. These "Unite Morphs" are useful both in the arena battles and in occasional puzzles in the platform sections.

Highs and lows

The game loses its flow only when those puzzles take place indoors. While that's an interesting break, it turns the GamePad into a frustrating camera. The campaign has enough variety to encourage playing through its 12-14 hours, with heroes to collect and flying robots to pilot.

The verdict

What could easily have been a gimmick-game is, instead, an attentively made, rich experience which will please fans of Platinum's previous work and the Nintendo crowd alike. It also offers plenty of incentive to play it through more than once. A shame, then, that too few people own a Wii U for it to receive the attention it deserves.